I have been running an online marketing / SEO company in Los Angeles (DigiWEI) for five years now and the best part about having an online business is that I can work from anywhere. I still do the local networking (it gets me out of my comfort zone) and meeting with local clients… just because I like too and there is something with actually getting to sit down and talk with a client.
I do a lot of my work from my Laptop and phone. To help me to keep organized and get on track when I use my phone I depend on Apps. Here are my top and most used apps for a Remote Entrepreneur.
1.GMail – You have to be able to get all your mail if a client wants to contact you. I also have Gmail connected to my other email accounts. I use it for both Business & Personal.
2. Calendar – You have to get organized to see when you have meetings or when if you have an event to go too. I put everything in my calendar just so I don’t forget. I also give access to my calendar to my assistant so she knows where I am during the work days.
3. Skype – At DigiWEI we use Skype to communicate with each other. I used it to talk with my assistant to working with my developers. My assistant is Virtual as well so she uses Skype as a second phone line.
4. LastPass – This is a great app and service to store all your passwords securely. This app really helps with all the passwords that we have nowadays and its a good way to keep organized.
5. Google Drive/ DropBox – Being able to access your files from anywhere is important to remote entrepreneurs so that’s why you need cloud storage. We use both Google Drive and DropBox for this. We mainly use Google Drive but Dropbox is a good alternative if you don’t link Google or Apple cloud storage.
6. Trello – If you need to manage a project or organize tasks for your team. Trello is a great app to use. You can organize almost anything with Trello. It lets you and your team collaborate with each other, using Boards, Checklists, Tasks, etc.
Here are a couple more apps that I use. I didn’t include them with that above because depending on your business you might not need them.
Zoom – This app is great for Virtual Meetings. I used this while I was in Asia and it worked perfectly.
PayPal / Xoom – Being able to transfer money or pay for something using a secure site is important.
These are my TOP apps that I use daily for my business and it keeps me on track. The most important part is that all the apps sync so I can get the same information no matter where I am. I traveled to Japan and Vietnam this year and all these apps were important to keeping my business running and keeping me connected.